LittleBigPlanet 2: Cross-Controller Pack review – PlayStation U

One of the great problems in writing about video games is that so many people are unable to separate fact from opinion. That’s understandable when it comes to reviews, no matter how objective they try to be, but reporting news is often just as dangerous a minefield.

The PS Vita has sold poorly since it was released and the sales figures and lack of forthcoming games make it almost impossible to be optimistic about its future. But stating that is no commentary on the hardware’s quality or potential, except in the fact that neither has been demonstrated often enough by its software.

As almost everyone admits the PS Vita is an extremely powerful and versatile portable console, but that means nothing without games. Since this Cross-Controller Pack is downloadable content for LittleBigPlanet 2 on the PlayStation 3 it almost makes things worse by demonstrating just how good the Vita could be with proper support.

The Cross-Controller Pack is essentially Sony’s proof that a combination of the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita can easily mimic all the major features of the Wii U and its GamePad. Just looking at the abilities of the two consoles shows that to be true, for unlike Xbox SmartGlass the PS Vita has proper psychical buttons and – unlike the Wii U itself – a multi-touch screen.

To demonstrate the set-up the Cross-Controller Pack features a brand new series of five story levels, involving a new quest for space pirate treasure. The Vita is used as the primary controller, with its analogue sticks and face buttons used to control Sackboy in the usual fashion.

But the Vita is also used to augment the onscreen platforming, from acting as an x-ray scanner to check for traps to being used to push blocks to create new routes and platforms. Blocks can be pushed either into or out of the screen depending on whether you prod the touchscreen or rear touchpad, a trick borrowed from the standalone game LittleBigPlanet For PS Vita.

The Vita’s motion controls are also used to slide specially coloured objects across the game world and there’s a simple little music game where you have to match a tune being played in the main game by hitting one of four colour-coded notes.

They’re all gimmicks certainly, but entertaining ones. The most enjoyable though is the simplest: the ability for your character to enter a ‘worm hole’ and move from the TV to the PS Vita. It’s almost an old trick now but it still feels strangely magical and the game often uses it to imaginative effect, at times removing Sackboy entirely from the action.

There’s also some Wii U style asynchronous multiplayer, including one where the player using the Vita is controlling a spaceship with motion controls, and everyone else is using a joypad to jump around inside the craft.

Since this is LittleBigPlanet there are also plenty of new objects and decorations with which to create your own cross-controller levels, with a generous selection of new interactive elements including new music tracks and almost 150 new stickers.

Of course none of this mitigates the underlying problem with all of the LittleBigPlanet games – that at heart they’re not especially good platformers – but in terms of the downloadable content itself the biggest problem is simply what a pain it all is to set-up. Even once you’ve got the right software downloaded on both the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita using them together is an unnecessarily complex process.

It’s certainly worth the hassle though, with no lag problems at all. As the portable equivalent of a Swiss Army knife the PS Vita allows even more functionality than the Wii U GamePad, but the obvious problem for Sony, or anyone else wanting to create a whole game using Cross-Controller features, is that so few people actually own one.

If you have a Wii U then publishers can guarantee that you also have a GamePad, but since that’s not the case with Sony’s two consoles we fear this may be one of the only times the functionality is ever used. We hope not though because this is not only a successful technical demonstration but a thoroughly entertaining one.

In Short: A successful proof of concept that shows that, on a technical level at least, the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita can match anything the Wii U can do.

Pros: All of the features work perfectly from a technical perspective, with zero lag. The new story levels are fun and imaginative and there are plenty of new DIY elements too.

Cons: The usual quibbles with LittleBigPlanet’s platform mechanics. Setting up and starting a game with the PS Vita is unnecessarily awkward.